McCain insists on sending US ground troops to Syria, Iraq

​If Republicans gain control of the US Senate following the November midterm elections, President Barack Obama should expect an old rival in a powerful position to push for US ground troops in Iraq and Syria.

Sen. John McCain, who
lost the 2008 presidential election to Obama, is currently the
most senior Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee. If
his party wins a majority in the Senate, as it isexpected to do, McCain would become chairman of
the committee, which oversees defense policy and the
military.

The longtime senator
from Arizona said over the weekend that he would use his perch on
the committee to advocate sending ground troops to buttress
US-led airstrikes against extremist group Islamic State (also
known as ISIS and ISIL), which has come to control large areas of
Iraq and Syria since the latter’s civil war brought the group to
prominence.

"Frankly, I know of
no military expert who believes we are going to defeat ISIS with
this present strategy," McCain said at a Pacific Council on
International Policy conference,accordingto The Huffington Post.

McCain has hit the
campaign trail ahead of election day to support his party’s
Senate candidates. The GOP has painted President Obama’s foreign
policy and national security policies as weak as well as
insufficient in the fight against jihadist group du jour, Islamic
State.

"We may be able to 'contain,' but to actually defeat ISIS is
going to require more boots on the ground, more vigorous strikes,
more special forces, further arming the Kurdish peshmerga forces
and creating a no-fly zone and buffer zone in Syria," McCain
said.

Syrian President Bashar
Assad, a fellow foe of Islamic State, must be removed from office
if the US wants to see success against extremism in the region,
McCain added.

Many top congressional
Republicanshave
stated a desire to send combat troops back to Iraq and into Syria
ever since American airstrikes against Islamic State began this
summer. President Obama has repeatedly said no ground troops will
be sent to the region, despite thestated willingnessof top Pentagon brass to
suggestthat this very
optionmight be
necessary to “destroy and degrade” Islamic State.

Public opinion seems to
tilt slightly to the side of withholding troop deployments. A
recentGallup pollfound that 54 percent of respondents
opposed sending ground troops to fight Islamic State.

Outside of American
troop deployments, McCain said the US must arm Kurdish forces
currently fighting Islamic State, send more arms to the Free
Syrian Army, and institute a no-fly zone and buffer zones to
safeguard territory and appease regional allies like Turkey. US
military leadershave signaledthey are open to installing a no-fly
zone over Syria.

"It's immoral to
tell [Syrians and Kurds] to fight ISIS but then let them get
bombed by Assad," McCain said. "It's the most immoral
thing since Henry Kissinger abandoned the Kurds many years
ago."

McCain also stated that
he was "very, very worried about the Iranians, not just
because of the nuclear weapons issue but because of their other
activities in the region." The US and other world
powersare in talkswith Iran to decide how much and in
what manner it must deplete its nuclear power program in order
for an easing of draconian economic sanctions currently imposed
by the West. McCain said he and other Republicans fear this deal
will simply delay Iran’s achievement of a nuclear weapon.

McCain said that as
chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, he would seek to
boost the defense budget after slight cuts in recent years. He
added that a Republican-controlled Senate would work with the US
House, already run by the GOP, to evade Obama’s reach.

"We could work with the House and leave the President two
choices -- either sign or veto. But I'm hoping that if we gain
the majority, it will be incumbent on Obama to look at the last
two years of his presidency and look at what we can accomplish
together."